The Chains That Bind Me
by Rift1
Summary: AU dark fic. Please read and review. Has Kurapika as the main character. Please!!!


The Chains That Bind Me  
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Standard disclaimers apply. AU. Dark Fic. Violent. I'm starting to hate myself for writing this. Really.  
Brief Explanation On How I've Messed The Series Up: Kurapika already has the chains, but hasn't condemned himself yet by the Chain Of Judgement. And his eyes - well, they stay red. Forever.  
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Hunting is savage pleasure. And we are born to it. The thrill of the chase, and the bliss of triumph afterwards. The hunted is captured, helpless and weak.   
  
To the victor goes the spoils.   
  
He's after me...they've finally sent an assassin..  
  
The girl ran, her short unruly hair flapping angrily against the wind as she sprinted, legs pumping desperately to distance herself an invisible assailant - she knew it was him down a few streets ago - by either a passing glance or a mere rustle of clothes...  
  
Or the simple ringing sound of chains rattling against one another.  
  
A series of beeps as her cellphone rang; not missing a beat, she unclipped it from her belt and held it to her ear, throwing glances over her shoulder as she did so.   
  
"Sarah?" Came the voice from the other end.  
  
"Talk to me." She managed to gasp out as she narrowly avoided a couple, neatly cutting between them as she dashed down the sidewalk - a splash as she accidentally stomped onto a puddle, soaking her socks and the bottom of her skirt. Damn.  
  
"Where are you?"   
  
"Just a few blocks off the drop point. Look, they've sent an assassin after me, I don't know how they found me out, but -"  
  
"Who is it?"  
  
Chains. Strangling me, tearing into my skin...ripping into my very soul...  
  
"It's hin. Dammit, Iori, it's him." Taking the phone off her ear for a second, the girl jumped, vaulting over a steel fence - a quick twist in midair and she was back on her feet. "You've got to get me out of here, now..."  
  
"Later. Did you successfully deliver the package?"   
  
"Yes. They're already implementing it into the system as we speak..." Sarah replied, trying to ignore the burning pain in her legs as she sprinted on. "Look, Iori, get me out of here fast. I don't know how much longer I can..."  
  
"You are expendable. The package is not." The voice said simply, with the easy air of one bidding farewell to a friend. "We cannot take the risk."  
  
"WHAT?!" Sarah almost screamed into her phone, her yell echoing off the black walls that seemed to imprison her. "You can't do that! You can't just -"  
  
"You knew of the consecquences when you took this job, Sarah." Iori said, cutting her off. "We cannot risk having this operation discovered by any hunter - or slayer, for that matter. You're on your own now."  
  
On your own now.  
  
"Iori, wait -"  
  
Click.  
  
"DAMMIT!" Sarah cursed loudly, slamming the phone into the cement, smashing it into a million pieces. She knew that the job was screwed up right from the start - why the hell did she take it, then?  
  
Screw it. No point in crying over it now - I'll just have to find another way out of here, before he comes...  
  
Gasping for breath, Sarah turned at an intersection, avoiding another couple at the last minute, half-mindedly wiping sweat from her brow as she did so.   
  
Iori, if I come out of this city alive, I'll hunt you down. And then I'll torture you. And then I'll kill you.  
  
Glancing behind her back, Sarah dived into an alley, her back against the wall as she tried valiantly to catch her breath.  
  
Okay, Sarah, focus - your motorcycle's only five blocks more away from here, only a few minutes' run if you go full-out...he won't be able to catch you then -  
  
Suddenly, another rattling of chains -  
  
Oh, no.  
  
Alarm bells ringing in her head, Sarah twisted to the right, narrowly dodging a chained metal ball the size of a marble that would have hit her had she not dodged - the ball smashed into the wall behind her like a bullet, almost punching through it -  
  
Not him..please, not him...  
  
Then, footsteps - slow and deliberate, with the air of one who seemingly had all the time in the world - echoed across the street, each one minutely louder than the first, closing in on her.  
  
Cornering her.  
  
With a shattering sound, the chain-tethered ball suddenly jerked back, ripping out a portion of the wall in the process, flying back into the shadows. Unnerved by the abrupt flash of movement, Sarah backpedaled, fumbling for her lightsaber as the steps neared her - until a figure rose from the darkness, as if molded from it- green eyes met terrifyingly red ones as the silhouette was engulfed in light...  
  
Kurapika.  
  
The last and most powerful Slayer the Kuruta tribe could ever train - before somebody went on a rampage and rubbed them out. Of course, she'd read the reports on him - who didn't? For lack of a better word, Kurapika was quite...famous amongst assassins, hunters and thieves alike.  
  
She had heard stories - ones that seemed so horrendous, so..so..unbelievable, that a child - a BOY - that was standing in front of her was even capable of such deeds. Dismembered corpses with their hearts violently torn out of their bodies. Assassins with their lives squeezed out of them, presumably by chains. Decapitation, disembowelment, anyone and anything that had ever stood in his way had ended up dying in quite a horrible fashion.   
  
She had cried for him, once. Even though she never knew him. Even though she loathed him, hated him, and secretly envied his abilities. She cried for him, for unlike her and the others, he was into it for all the wrong reasons.  
  
Revenge. For the murder of his whole tribe, his whole family - his whole race. Vengeance. Nobody profits from it, yet everybody suffers for it - including the one seeking it. Like her.  
  
"Kaoru Sarah, hunter." The pale yellow-haired boy stated softly, noting the gleaming lightsaber in her hand. "Return my employer's property, or I will finish what I started."  
  
"I'm not quite sure what you're talking about, Slayer." Sarah managed, swallowing a lump in her throat. "I have other business to attend to-"  
  
"Your business is with me now, and me only." Kurapika said, his cold eyes projecting pure venom into hers. "Kindly return what you stole from Neon-sama, and I shall think nothing more of it."  
  
Neon-sama. She even got him to call her *that*. "Your *employer* is a spoiled, corrupted bitch who hires boys to do her dirty work." Sarah spat, in spite of herself. "You know it as well as I do, Kurapika! She's only using you! Using Gon, using Killua, even Leorio -"  
  
"My affairs, my comrades' or Neon-sama's are none of your concern." He held out a hand - his chained hand - to her. "I'm not going to ask again." His voice was now sharp, all politeness gone. "Give me back what you took before I kill you."  
  
Run. You *can* run away. You don't have to fight him. Run.  
  
Please...  
  
Sarah, despite the cold sweat breaking out on her forehead, returned Kurapika's venomous stare. "Then I guess you'll have to," she said, igniting her lightsaber, the blue blade erupting from the handle with a screech. "If you can."  
  
What the hell are you trying to do to yourself, Kaoru?! A voice screamed inside her head. If you're forgetting - and I know you are - that's a Slayer you're blatantly challenging to the death!! Not a thief, not an assassin..and not certainly a hunter, but a Slayer! Say it with me, Slay-er. Hello? Am I not getting through to you here?! Think of Rune-  
  
Shut up, Sarah cut the voice off. I know what I'm doing...at least...  
  
"Very well." Kurapika said - a sharp flick of his wrist, and a lightsaber, not unlike her own, snapped into his hand. Another flick, and a bright red blade of light - almost the same hue as his eyes - extended outwards, its eerie glow bathing Kurapika's face with crimson, making him look more terrifying than ever. "Challenge accepted."  
  
With that, Sarah lunged at Kurapika, the lightsaber in her hands coming alive as she screamed, each and every strike backed with enough force to break down a brick wall - but infuriatingly, irritatingly, Kurapika managed to block all of them - effortlessly, flawlessly, as if he was reading all of her moves...correction, KNEW all her moves. Each slash she made was met with unerring accuracy and speed, and, strangely enough, with just the right amount of force to make her back up and attack at another angle, and not to lose her balance, or to disrupt her rhythm... As if..as if...  
  
..he was merely toying with her.  
  
With an enraged yell Sarah struck, this time aiming for Kurapika's saber itself, the glowing sword humming in the air as she tore it downwards, and abruptly flashed as it smashed into the crimson blade of Kurapika's lightsaber, both beams of light crackling and screeching in protest as their owners struggled to break the stalemate.  
  
Then, without warning, Sarah struck again, ripping her weapon to the side as she twisted, effectively breaking the clinch - shifting her weight to the balls of her feet, Sarah crouched, narrowly dodging the boy's blade as it whistled above her. Cocking her sword arm back, she spun, the lightsaber in her hand humming as she thrusted it upwards -  
  
Crash.  
  
Again - expectedly - Kurapika blocked her strike again, both hands on his lightsaber's handle as he caught Sarah's blow with a horizontal parry, effectively stopping her assault.  
  
"Impressive..." The yellow-haired boy smiled at her. "For a hunter."  
  
"Nobody - and I mean nobody - screws with Kaoru Sarah." She snarled back at him, cutting him off, oblivious to to the fact that her arms were shaking in the effort to keep her blade level. "Not you, not your boss, not *anyone*. Got that?"   
  
Without waiting for a response, Sarah jumped, somersaulting over the blue-garbed Slayer as she did so, landing a few feet away from him.  
  
I will NOT fail again.  
  
With a practiced motion Sarah raised her lightsaber to her face, feet coming together, the handle held tightly with two hands in a pose that was a salute to one's enemy before battle - and concentrated, never taking her eyes off Kurapika as she purged - abandoned - all fear within herself...  
  
Casting aside her emotions.  
  
Emotions make us human, her mother once told her during sword practice. But being a hunter is not being human at all. Being a hunter means being a cold, calculating machine, capable of any action without thought or hesitation. And to accomplish that, you must abandon your feelings - your humanity - so that you can survive.  
  
"Prepare yourself, Slayer." Sarah heard herself speak in a voice not quite her own. "Now I attack."  
  
Like two rattlesnakes in a duel for prey, Hunter and Slayer lunged for each other at the same time, their movements so quick and so smooth it was as though a dance of death, carefully and masterfully choreographed to perfection - each strike, each slash, each movement followed up quickly by another, in a seamless motion, the impact of one lightsaber on another punctuated by abrupt flashes of light as energy collided with energy.  
  
Then, as if time was hastened by the gods themselves, the battle suddenly became more furious, the tempo quickening to a point that the sabers themselves seemed only blurs - crescents of red and blue as they clash, their owners seemingly non-existent, moving at an inhuman pace - each one waiting for the other to make a mistake, to present an opening that would be summarily dealt with a sword slash which would end the fight right there and then.  
  
I will not be the one to fail this time...no..  
  
Ignoring the burning pain in her arms, in her legs, in her whole body, Sarah struck harder, faster, tapping into her reserves, pouring everything she had into her assault - finally, an opening, as Kurapika blocked her lightsaber once more - with an almighty effort, Sarah tore her weapon upwards, knocking Kurapika back - the boy looked stunned as he stumbled for a second, and that was all Sarah needed. The world around her melding into a blur as she dashed at him, blade held above her head, glowing brightly as she screamed...  
  
Mother - Rune - I do this for you -   
  
And suddenly stopped when Kurapika suddenly appeared in front of her, eyes blazing, body and weapon moving as one, melded together, rearing back to strike...  
  
Masaka...  
  
**  
  
It was morning. The sky was an unforgiving gray, with no cloud in sight. The sun shone harshly upon her, almost searing her as she stood amongst people she never knew. It wasn't as if she cared anyway. All she cared about was her.  
  
Her mother. Buried underneath them, with a thin slab of marble to mark her grave.  
  
Mom...I..failed you for the last time..  
  
Slowly, the strangers began to leave, one by one, leaving her alone in that grassy plain, alone in her misery. Alone.  
  
Alone..  
  
"Mom, I know I was never there when you needed me most...and that I failed you every single time. But I promise you. Never again."  
  
Her skirt fluttering in the wind as a breeze slowly swept across the plain. "Me and Rune...are going to the city. I have some friends there, and...I think I can get a job. Don't worry," She said, her voice faltering a little. "I..I can take care of Rune. I promise you that."  
  
Her legs failing her, she sank down into the grass, tears painfully trickling from her eyes as she cried.   
  
"Mom...I miss you...Rune misses you...so much." Tears gleaming like dew in the sunlight as they fell. "She misses your cooking more than ever. And I...I didn't even get to say goodbye...or tell you how m-much I l-loved you..Mom..I..."  
  
Her mother, killed in battle, her two daughters forced to watch her die.  
  
"I..I promise to be stronger. I won't...fail you again."  
  
Blood on her hands, blood all over the place. And her mother's eyes staring blankly at her as Rune cried...  
  
"But whatever happens.."  
  
Unclipping her own lightsaber from her belt, she set it on top of the marker, the sunlight gleaming on its polished metal surface as she did so.  
  
"...please don't think less of me."   
  
Slowly rising, she stood, giving her mother's inscripted name one last look before turning and walking away.  
  
**  
  
"M-mom..."  
  
The girl's mouth moved once, twice, face contorting in pain as the glowing blade of Kurapika's lightsaber tore into her chest, ripping through muscle and sternum, her lightsaber landing dejectedly on the pavement with a dull thud.  
  
I...tried. But I just wasn't fast enough. I wasn't strong enough...  
  
Slumping forward, her forehead resting on his shoulder, Kurapika heard - felt - the girl cry, sobs wracking her small frame, warm tears soaking into his shirt as she moaned, half in sorrow and half in pain.  
  
I wasn't good enough.  
  
"Mom.." he heard her weakly mewl again, the word coming out muffled - and then, suddenly, in an unnerving display of willpower - she lifted her arms and hugged him tightly, a slight moan escaping her gritted teeth as she fully impaled herself on the lightsaber in one, abrupt motion.   
  
So this is how it ends...  
  
Despite the situation, Kurapika's eyes widened in surprise - and unwillingly, his cheeks flushed crimson. Never had a person hugged him - nor touched him in such an..intimate manner. Neon-sama's hugs didn't count - she was his mistress, and he was hers to do as she pleases - nor did Gon's, nor Killua's; they were his friends, his comrades - never as an equal -  
  
And in all places. And of all people. What card shall Fate deal him next?  
  
"No...not now.." Sarah murmured, as Kurapika took hold of the lightsaber's handle, preparing to end it. "Let's just stay like this...please.."  
  
"But..."   
  
"I..I know..." A sharp rising as she inhaled. "..that you were sent to kill me, but...at least let me die...in your arms..."  
  
A request from a dying girl. Surely you can accomplish that-  
  
Quiet. This could be nothing more than a ploy - if she's really a hunter, then she'd have no trouble palming a knife -  
  
The girl shuddered again in his arms.  
  
For God's sake, Kurapika. Are you that corrupted that you can't even trust a dying person? Acknowledge her request. Make it happen, and let her die in peace. She deserves that much.  
  
"K-kurapika?" Sarah whispered, blinking up uncertainly at Kurapika's silent visage.  
  
It's the least *you* can do.  
  
The lightsaber's blade winked out of existence as Kurapika deactivated it, the metal handle snapping up into his sleeve. Hesitating, he wrapped his arms around the girl's waist, pressing her to him.  
  
If only Killua could see me now.   
  
Sighing at himself, Kurapika nodded. "I...yes. I shall keep you company until you die."  
  
A small smile spread across Sarah's lips, her dimming eyes studying his features.  
  
So innocent...so beautiful...  
  
Silence. Then --  
  
"A-arigato, Kurapika...san..." she said, her voice nothing more than a whisper. "I..appreciate this - very much."  
  
He stiffened at that. "I...well...a hunter like you deserves not a solitary death on the cement," Kurapika managed, a small shudder in his voice, as if a student nervously reciting memorized lines before a mentor. "One...such as you deserve to slip into oblivion in the hands of...of..."  
  
"Her murderer?"   
  
Kurapika blinked at that, his crimson eyes falling downcast, and almost instantly Sarah regretted saying what she said. They were fighting to the death - it was either her or him. They both knew the consecquences, and -  
  
"No. Of relatives, friends, lovers..."  
  
"But-"  
  
Kurapika cut her off. "No, I am certainly not one of your relatives, or a friend, or your lover, but..."  
  
So pure...  
  
"...all I can offer is watashi...nothing more."  
  
Sarah chuckled, tears starting to form on the edges of her eyes. "I...accept, Slayer..and...I thank you...for what you have done..."  
  
So this is how it ends.   
  
Rune, please forgive me. I could never be there when you needed me, but...live for me.  
  
Live.  
  
Then, darkness blurring her vision, Sarah felt her legs give underneath her, her form almost dragging Kurapika down into the floor could not he had tightened her embrace on her, supporting her...she cried again, and then saw her mother - with Rune holding her hand, behind Kurapika, facing her, and waving, just a few feet away from them, almost within arm's reach -  
  
Weakly, Sarah stretched out a dainty hand towards them - her family-  
  
Her life...  
  
And said the two words that came into her mind before the darkness finally claimed her.  
  
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Ouch. This one hurt me bad. Really bad. From nightmares to headaches. Writing about HxH is HARD. Damn hard. Anyway, review if you like it. And I'm sorry about the rude cutoff there - it's kind of late, and...well, let's just say I'm starting to see things...  
  
Oh, and thanks goes to: Miko-chan and Ender, for prereading this. Thanks for the info and suggestions.  
  
Crpt.Rft/KeroChan 


End file.
